Cotillon is the moniker of Jordan Corso, a New York-based artist with ties to both San Francisco and Los Angeles. His sophomore LP, ‘The Afternoons,’ was co-produced by Al Carlson (St. Vincent, Wild Nothing, Ariel Pink) and Shane Butler (Quilt) and is due out on April 21st as a co-release between Burger Records (cassette) & Modern Sky Entertainment (digital & LP.) It’s currently available for pre-order.
Album track Alex’s Room clocks in at only two and a half minutes, but delivers plenty of sunny, laid-back charm. You can stream the song via Soundcloud below.
The Cotillon story began In the fall of 2013, when Corso accepted an invitation from Chet “JR” White to move into his spare bedroom in San Francisco – a room famous for housing prolific songwriters such as Christopher Owens, Tobias Jesso Jr, and Cass McCombs – to develop his debut LP. Under White’s guidance, Corso wrote and recorded his first album and signed a deal with Burger Records. After touring the US in support of the release, he decided that it was time to make his “New York” album and boarded a plane for NYC, where he moved into a small apartment with his girlfriend and began getting to know the city. He wrote everyday, drawing inspiration from French new wave, Japanese literature, uppers, downers, big city culture, and a romantic relationship.
Corso recorded a large collection of demos in his apartment, which he then shared with Shane Butler of New York-via-Boston’s Quilt. Butler recognized a dichotomy in his songs that seemed to be a perfect metaphor for both Corso’s personality and for the city itself:
the high and the low, the grime and the glitter, the superficial and the genuine. “One of the things I really like about Jordan,” Butler explains, “is that he is caught in this interstice between high-culture & low-culture; between the cleaner aspects of life and the grittier. I heard both these sides of him in the demos he showed me. Jordan also seemed really into this idea of making a ‘New York’ record. As someone who grew up partly in New York City, the prospect of making a ‘New York’ record in 2015/16 is a very complicated thing. That concept wrestles with some of the ideas that I saw in Jordan’s personality.”
The Afternoons was recorded over the span of a summer at Greenpoint’s classic Gary’s Electric Studio. The album features Jon Nellen (Ginla) on drums & synthesizer and guest piano from John Andrews (Quilt, Woods.)
‘The Afternoons’ track listing
1. Secret
2. Promises 1
3. Promises 2
4. I Like People
5. Black Sea
6. SFO
7. Alex’s Room
8. 10 Dish Set
9. Fang
10. Staying In
Cotillon will play SXSW next month before heading out West for a string of dates with The Relationship (ft. Weezer’s Brian Bell) – see below for a list of upcoming shows.
Tour dates
* w/ The Relationship
3/14: Dallas, TX @ Crown & Harp
3/15 – 3/21: Austin, TX @ SXSW
4/18: Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater*
4/20: San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop*
4/21: Portland, OR @ Analog Lounge*
4/22: Seattle, WA @ The Funhouse*
4/27: Beijing, China @ Sound of the Xity showcase (afternoon)
4/29: Beijing, China @ Strawberry Festival
4/30: Shanghai, China @ Strawberry Festival
5/3: Taiwan @ Spring Wave Festival
5/6: Matsumoto, Japan @ TBD
5/7: Sendai, Japan @ FAM
5/9: Tokyo, Japan @ X Girl
5/10: Tokyo, Japan @ Shimokitizawa Three
